The Dunstan Times. "Fiat justitia ruat coelum." MONDAY, JUNE 18th 1906. A week ago and the people of New

Dunstan Times, Issue 2336, 18 June 1906, Page 4

The Dunstan Times. "Fiat justitia ruat coelum." MONDAY, JUNE 18th 1906. A week ago and the people of New

Zealand were proudly THE PASSING f orwa rd to the or the return 0 f their popuPREMIER. ]ar , eader> fresh from the glories and pageants which had been showered so treely on him by the leading citizens ot the whole Australian Commonwealth, To-day the body of the great New Zealander lies in state in Wellington, awaiting the last tribute which can be paid it from a sorrowing populace, Passing as he did out of this world, right on the topmost wave ot his career, with his country prosperous, and with his long administration almost unanimously recognised by the voting power of the colony, his suddenly tragic end was probably the one which would have been desired by our distinguished leader. Although many years of a brilliant and useful career were apparently still before him, his call came and the carrying out of the many beneficial and humanitarian motives which it was his special delight to conceive, are now left to the execution of his successors. As to how these will administer the generous traits so plainly pointed out to them by our late revered Premier time alone will show, but his broad administrative principles will probably dominate the colony’s policy for many a year to come. Doubtless it will be for the many humanitarian measures, affecting the welfare of the masses ol the colony, that he will be most kindly remembered and of these he was most justly proud. Speaking at the New Zealanders’ social in Melbourne, no later than June 4th, he gave a lucid expression ol his views on those questions. At the cons elusion of his speech he said ‘•I was once asked to define my position in affairs. J replied, ‘ A humanist; a big heart; a great desire to alleviate the troubles and miseries of older countries.’ We in these countries have a great opportunity. If we were to follow the doctrine and the policy of these older countries we should have the same results here. Educate the young, give opportunities, uplift mankind, show the broad and generous hand, and all the better traits of mankind will reign supreme. We are laying the foundation ot what will ultimately be a great nation Let us lay it in a broad way. Let men enjoy the comforts that God intended for bis creatures. In the creation of the world it was never intended by our Divine Master that only the few should have the advantage, anti that countless thousands should want for food and shelter. . . We in New Zealand have unexampled prosperity. We have no millionaires, no mendicants, no destitution, no poverty, and very little vice. Why not try in other countries whether the same benefit will follow by working along the same lines as New Zealand.”

A staunch Imperialist, he desired to draw the colonies still closer to the Motherland and was often occupied in thinking and working out projects* with this end in view Quick to sec the opportunity, and possessed of the high courage to seize on it when it offered, he invariably stepped boldly into the breach when the occasion demanded The outbreak of the Boer War afforded the very opening which his imperialistic spirit craved for and the manner in which he availed of it will always be remembered to the credit of himself and the colony in the annals of our history. As an excellent type of the self-made man Mr Seddon stood out as a shining example. Landing in the colonies, possessed of nothing more in his tavor than a good trade and a healthy body, his untiring capacity for work and a will power which brooked no opposition soon forced him to the front. His strength of character, combined with an indefinable magneticism which endeared him to all classes of the community, soon dominated all with whom he came in contact and he rose to his position as the indisputable leader of the colony with phenomenal rapidity. The force of that power was clearly shown by the manner in which he averted the many crisises which arose in the troublous times which ensued soon after he assumed that leadership. His private life, to use the words of one of his keenest political opponents, Mr T. E, Taylor, was blameless and irreproachable, and characterised by an unswerving devotion to his wife and family. Doubtless he hgd his faults, but who has not, and although the labour ot his life time is yet far from completed we can safely look back on his career as a life well spent, and in the course of which there is very little to re«